


Oh Don't Be Shy, Let's Cause A Scene

by fortunehasgivenup



Series: And did you know that I'm wild for your skin [10]
Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: AU, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Fluff, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, Meet the Family, Sleepovers, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 09:33:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21177224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fortunehasgivenup/pseuds/fortunehasgivenup
Summary: Beth meets more of Rio's family. They start having sleepovers while the kids are around, leading up to Halloween.





	Oh Don't Be Shy, Let's Cause A Scene

**Author's Note:**

> There is a brief mention of Boomer trying to leverage his position over Annie to get her to go out with him about midway through.

Beth heard the door open and Jane was a blur as she ran by, yelling over her shoulder, “I’ll be back in a second!”

Marcus came after her, stopping to give Beth a quick hug. “Hi,” he said with a grin.

“Hi Marcus,” she said, running her hand over his head before he let go.

She turned her head towards Rio and tilted her face up for a hello kiss. “They were good?”

Rio nodded, leaning in to give her a second, longer kiss.

Jane bounded back in, a box in her hands. Right, the mug. Beth had offered to send it with her to Rio’s, but Jane had insisted - this was a mug for him to use at their house.

“What’s this?” Rio accepted the box.

Jane shook her head. “Open it!”

Rio chuckled, but took a seat at the counter and opened the box, pulling out the mug that Jane had painted for him. He turned it over in his hands, taking in his name, the birds, the letter "J" that Jane had put on the bottom so he would know who it was from.

“You did this?” He looked at Jane, holding the mug up. She nodded. “For me?”

She nodded again. “That’s why your name is on it, silly.”

Rio laughed and set down the mug, bending to hoist Jane up onto his lap. “Thanks, peanut.” He kissed her forehead. “It’s perfect.”

“You really like it?” Beth heard Jane ask more quietly, her arms around Rio’s neck.

“I really like it,” he replied. “I’ll use it for tea tonight, yeah?”

“Okay. But you have to leave it here,” Jane insisted.

Rio put her back down. “Promise.”

“Can I see?” Marcus asked, holding out his hands. Rio passed him the mug. “We did this once, right, Dad?”

“Yeah, for Mother’s Day. You painted that plate your mom keeps in the front hall for her keys.”

Things drifted from there as Rio stepped in to help with dinner while Jane and Marcus told Beth all about what they’d done after school.

“I like their library better than ours, Mommy.”

“Oh do you?” Beth glanced over her shoulder to see Jane nodding. “Why?”

“They have these really tall ceilings,” Jane held her hand up as high as it could go, “and lots of stairs. It looks really cool. It’s an example of - what was it called again, Rio?”

“Modern architecture,” he supplied.

“It’s an example of modern architecture,” Jane went on. “But then we went to the kid’s section and they had little couches and bean bag chairs!”

“That sounds fun. Did you take out any books?” Beth hadn’t sent Jane’s library card with her, so if they had, Rio must have done it.

“No, we went to a workshop.”

Beth looked to Rio, who was mixing a vinaigrette. “What kind of workshop?”

“For making comics,” Marcus answered this time. “But then we painted them when we got home and it wasn’t dry yet, so we couldn’t bring them to show you.”

“That sounds fun!” Beth turned to look at the two of them, who nodded in tandem. “I’m excited to see what you made. Did you say thank you to Rio for taking you?”

“She did,” Rio replied. “Very politely.” He kissed her cheek as he walked by on his way to grab something from the fridge. Jane and Marcus grabbed the soccer ball and went to the backyard.

“I’m going to your gym tomorrow,” she said.

Rio looked up. “Yeah?”

“Just to sign up really. Figure out what classes register for,” Beth said as she wiped the counter.

“Don’t let any of them talk you into taking something you don’t want to,” he said as he walked back her way. “Saturday after next still work for a barbecue? Lora messaged me about it.”

“Yes, it does. I’ve already started planning the menu,” Beth admitted. He chuckled. “Oh hush, you aren’t allowed to tease if you’re going to eat it.”

“If you say so.”

————————

Beth shifted her weight from side to side as she waited by the desk, feeling distinctly uncomfortable in the gym, even though she knew that she didn’t have a reason to be.

“You must be Beth.”

She turned towards the voice, surprised to find a woman shorter than her and just as curvy.

“Tara,” the woman extended her hand, “Rio’s talked about you non-stop since you agreed to go out with him.”

“He has?” Beth shook Tara’s hand.

The fitness instructor laughed. “Don’t worry, I just figured I can help you decide which class you feel most comfortable with.”

In the end, Tara slotted Beth into a barre class. “The first week or two will be killer and you’re probably going to hate the idea of stairs,” she said, “but I think it’ll hit your desire for cardio and stretching.”

“Sounds…good?” Beth said.

The younger woman laughed. “The class is pretty varied in skill levels too. You’ll do great. Sign you up for tomorrow morning?”

“Sure.”

———————

Two days later, Beth lay on the couch, unmoving, listening to a key turn in the lock.

“Hey,” Rio called out as he came in. “Elizabeth?”

She groaned, turning her head towards the door in time to see him jog into the living room and stop. He looked at her.

“What happened?”

“Tara happened,” Beth replied, prompting him to laugh at her. “She signed me up for barre class.”

He lifted her legs so he could sit, then dropped her legs into his lap and started to massage her thighs. Beth yelped, kicking out.

“Thighs, right?”

Beth nodded.

“Relax.”

“Easy for you to say,” she groaned. “Oh god, I’m going to die. I woke up this morning and I had to climb the stairs, I nearly cried.”

He kept massaging her legs, starting to dig a little more into the overused muscles. “You take one of those baths you like so much?”

“Last night.” She yelped when he hit a particularly bad spot, but he kept up the pressure until the pain eased. “God, that feels good.”

“Glad to be of some help,” he said. “You move from this couch today?”

“Yes,” Beth moaned. “I had to go do an event! I owe Ruby so many favours.”

Rio made a sympathetic noise. “You eat dinner yet?”

“I ordered dinner,” she told him. “Thai.”

“Sounds good.” He moved down to her calf which prompted a new set of yelps and whimpers.

“Are you trying to kill me?” She hissed, trying to wiggle away from the steady pressure of his hands. “Ow!”

“Relax,” he said.

“Easy for you to say, you smug - ah!” She bolted up to grab his wrist, but he’d already pushed her past the point of pain. She moaned, collapsing back down.

“You bastard,” she hissed.

Chuckling, he just switched to her other leg. “Excuse you, my parents were married when they conceived me. Lora was the suspiciously early one.”

Beth opened one eye. “Was she?”

“Nah,” he laughed. “She came after they’d been married for about a year. When I told my ma about Cassie, I thought she was gonna murder me.”

“She obviously didn’t,” Beth commented, sinking a little further into the cushions.

He smiled. “She calmed down, though she wanted us to get married. We’d been pretty casual and neither of us were sure that it would work long term - romantically speaking, anyways. When me and Cass split up, my mother was pretty disappointed.”

“But she came around.” Beth reached out to run her hand down his arm.

“Marcus has that effect on people,” Rio said. “Even if I wasn’t married to his mother, my ma adored him. She likes being a grandmother.”

Beth traced the prominent vein of his forearm. “He’s a sweet kid. Gets it from you.”

“In that case, how would you feel about picking him up from school on Tuesday?” Rio asked. “An out of town client’s coming in for work. She was wondering if I could fit her in, but I’ve got Marcus.”

Beth smiled. “I’d be good with that. Then you come here for dinner?”

“Sounds like a plan to me, ma,” he drawled.

————————

“Hi honey,” Beth greeted Marcus as he climbed into the van. “Can you get yourself buckled in?”

He nodded, doing up his seatbelt. “Hi Miss Beth,” he replied.

Beth smiled at him in her rearview mirror as she pulled out of the parking lot for the short drive to the other school to pick up her kids. “How was your day?”

“It was good.” He shrugged, then leaned over to open his backpack to hunt for something. “I got a book out of the library today,” he told her. “Can you help me read it?” He pulled out a hardcover book, hefty, about knights.

Once she had joined the pick-up line, Beth took the book and flipped it open, relieved when it was mostly pictures. “Sure, Marcus.” Her head went up at the sound of the final bell. “After we have dinner, how about that?”

His smile was just like his dad’s as he agreed. “When’s my daddy picking me up?” He asked, getting out of his seat to stand close to her while they waited for the others to arrive.

“He should be by around dinner time.” Without really thinking, she reached up to brush his hair flat, freezing partway through the action, half expecting Marcus to push her away. But he didn’t, just waited patiently as she tidied his hair.

Emma reached the car first. “What’s for dinner?” she asked, throwing herself into the back seat.

“Waffles,” Beth replied over her shoulder, catching sight of Danny approaching with his friend Steve, their heads bent down over something.

“Yay!” Emma cheered. “Marcus, have you had my mom’s waffles?”

Marcus, who got shy around the older kids, shook his head as he returned to his seat.

“They’re really good,” Emma promised.

Danny got in, quickly followed by Jane. “What’s really good?” he asked.

“Mom’s waffles,” Emma said.

“Waffles!” Jane clapped her hands together. “Can we have strawberries on them?”

“They’re already cut up. Now do up your seatbelts. As soon as Kenny gets here, we’re on our way,” she reminded them. It took another minute for Kenny to arrive at the van and he was quiet when he did, even when Jane told him that they were having waffles.

The drive home was spent asking probing questions about who had homework and who was lying about not having homework. Even this early in the school year, teachers were starting to assign projects. Marcus had to do one on a mammal, Jane had question sheets about “Your Family”, Emma had a short book report, Danny was supposed to be starting to plan his science fair project already, and Kenny just shrugged when she asked.

The second the car was off, the kids bolted in different directions - Kenny and Emma to their rooms, Jane to the living room, and Danny to the back yard. Marcus, still wearing his backpack, hovered in the kitchen with Beth.

“Hey,” Beth held out her hand, “let’s get that off. Can you take out your lunch bag?”

He did as asked, handing her a Spiderman lunch bag that he’d been ecstatic about when they'd gone back to school shopping. He’d eaten everything, but she hadn’t really expected any different.

“Do you want to go play?” Beth asked.

Marcus looked towards the backyard. “Normally I do homework first.”

“Alright,” Beth gestured for him to take a seat at the counter, “do you need help?”

He nodded, pulling out his agenda and a blue duo tang with his name written on the front in what must have been his teacher’s writing. Beth flipped to the relevant page in the agenda and read over what Marcus needed to do.

“What do you want to do first?”

Buddy, clearly having greeted everyone else, came into the kitchen and took a seat at Marcus’ feet. Marcus reached down to pat the dog’s head gently. He and Buddy adored each other, much to Rio’s chagrin.

“He’s gonna want his own now,” Rio had groaned. She’d just laughed at him.

Marcus began to work his way through his spelling list, occasionally asking Beth a question.

The more time she spent with Marcus, the more she noticed Rio’s quiet intelligence in him. He wasn’t as boisterous - for lack of a better word - as his dad, but he had a sense of confidence with a calm that Beth recognized from Cassie.

Eventually, he had copied out the words on his spelling list three times each and went to join Jane in the living room.

Rio came in once the first batch of waffles were already cooking in the waffle irons.

“Daddy!” Marcus got off the couch where he’d been watching cartoons with Jane, racing to Rio, who hoisted him up with a laugh. Beth smiled at the sight of the two of them, heads close, talking about something. Rio caught her eye and winked.

“He cause any trouble?” Rio asked, putting him back down.

“Oh, all kinds,” Beth said. Marcus’ eyes widened and she could see him about to defend himself, but she went on, “He did his homework without being told to, so now Jane’s going to have to start learning how to do that too.”

Rio laughed. “You finish it all, pop?”

Marcus shook his head. “I have to do a project on mammals and tonight, I’m supposed to pick one.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard. Dinner almost ready or should I shower?” Rio asked, kissing Beth briefly.

“Just need the table set and we can start eating,” she told him. “It’s Emma’s turn tonight, if you can get her.”

He planted a noisy kiss on her temple, much to the disgust of Marcus and Jane - who had joined them. “Didn’t want to send Jane to get her?”

“And make Emma dig in her heels up in her room? Yeah right.”

Rio kissed her quickly on the lips, ignoring Marcus and Jane. “Be back.”

“I can help set the table,” Marcus offered, but Jane answered before Beth could assure him it was okay.

“No, we take turns. You can have your own night if you want or you can help me on my nights. It goes me, Danny, Jane, Kenny, then back to me.”

Beth cut in. “You don’t have to help, Marcus. I’m sure you have chores at home too.”

He shrugged. “I help with laundry and cleaning. Sometimes with cooking, but Dad says that most of it is too dangerous.”

Rio came back in, followed by Emma, who was talking enthusiastically about something as Rio nodded and made noises of agreement.

“How about you two go get Kenny and Danny?” Beth suggested to Jane and Marcus. They bolted, pleased to have something to do.

“How was your day?” Beth asked Rio.

“Good,” he answered, grabbing a berry. “Had a session with your sister. Her piece is coming along. One more session and then touch-ups.”

“She’ll be happy to have it finished with.” Beth glanced at the table. “Can you see what everyone wants to drink?”

“Sure.”

Soon enough, everything was ready.

It was quiet for the first few moments as everyone started eating, although that wasn’t unusual. Despite the years of having kids, Beth was still slightly surprised by how much they were able to eat at once.

“We’re doing an art project at school,” Danny said. “And I want to do mine with inks.”

Beth glanced at him confusion, but he was looking at Rio.

“Natural or synthetic?” Rio asked.

“Natural,” Danny replied. “I want to make some.”

Rio nodded. “Black or colours?”

“Both.”

“For writing, I assume?” Beth checked.

Danny grinned. “Yeah, Mom. I’m not gonna tattoo any of the kids at recess.”

“Well,” Beth lifted her glass of wine, “that’s a relief.”

“I’m gonna do it at sleepovers,” Danny finished. Beth looked at him over the rim of her glass, but he just smiled at her like he wasn’t doing anything wrong.

When she glanced at Rio, he wasn’t doing a good job at hiding his amusement. Jane was flat out giggling with Marcus, while Emma seemed above it all. Kenny kept eating, shaking his head slightly.

“Well,” Beth sighed, “don’t get caught or the rest of the PTA will be after me faster than you can say ‘sugar free’.”

Rio turned serious. “You find some inks to make, I can help you find the ingredients and make them up.”

“Do you have any books on ink making?” Danny asked.

“I do,” Rio responded. “I can bring them by next time I’m over.”

Danny nodded and the topic of conversation drifted towards something else.

After dinner, he and Beth did the dishes, flicking water at each other every so often and giving each other teasing kisses.

Jane came into the kitchen as Rio dried a mixing bowl, looked around for Beth.

“She’s in the bathroom,” Rio told her before she needed to ask.

“I have to fill in this sheet about my family,” Jane said, placing the paper in question down.

Rio dried off his hands and looked it over. They really didn’t leave a lot of space for kids with divorced parents, especially if they had a blended family.

“You need help?” He asked.

She nodded.

“What part?”

Jane climbed up onto a stool and looked at the page. “How do you spell my mom’s name?”

Rio spelled it out loud for her, watching as she carefully made each letter.

“Elizabeth,” Jane said once she’d finished. “What about my dad’s?”

“D-E-A-N.”

Beth came into the kitchen and glanced over at what they were doing.

“Rio’s helping me,” Jane told her mother, sounding dismissive.

Beth just laughed and kissed Jane on the top of the head. “Well, call if you need my help. I’m going to take a shower.”

Rio gave her a look. Was she messing with him on purpose? But she just brushed her hand against his and retreated towards her bedroom and the bed he was starting to think more and more of as ‘theirs’.

Though he’d begun to feel the same about the one at the loft as well. On nights that she wasn’t there, it felt too big. Too quiet. Even with Marcus there on some nights, snoring like a man three times his size, it wasn’t the same as Beth’s little sighs or her habit of shifting around, smacking her lips sometimes.

“Where should I put you and Marcus?” Jane asked, bringing him back to the present.

He blinked. “You want us on there?” She nodded. Rio looked at the already overflowing sheet, then got up to get a black pen. He took the paper and drew a line off the box with Beth’s name, then drew a box, a line, and another box. In the first, he wrote “MOM’S BOYFRIEND” in neat letters at the bottom, then he pushed it back over to her.

“You know how to spell my name?”

She nodded, picking up her pencil and writing his name. “How do you spell Marcus?”

“Why don’t you go ask him?” Rio suggested, running his hand over her hair. “I’m sure he’d be thrilled to spell it out for you.”

Jane tilted her head back and smiled up at him. “Thank you for helping,” she said as she slipped off the stool, taking her sheet and pencil with her.

“No problem,” he assured her. Shaking his head, he made his way towards the bedroom. The shower was still on, but he knew that Beth tended to stick to shorter showers in the evenings when the kids were around. Like she’d heard that, the sound stopped.

Rio turned the knob and stepped in, smiling when he saw Beth wrapping herself in a towel. Rather than scolding him or anything like that, she just smiled back.

“Hi,” he said, closing the door behind him quietly.

Beth turned towards the mirror and grabbed her lotion.

He stepped towards her, plastering himself against her back and helping her spread the moisturizer on her arms as she applied it to her face and neck. She giggled when he tickled the inside of her bicep.

Her skin was warmer than usual from her shower, slippery with water and lotion, but Rio wanted to push the towel down and start touching her everywhere.

Rio kissed the back of Beth’s neck, cradling her jaw in his hand.

“We can’t,” she told him.

“I know,” he groaned, pressing his hips against Beth, trapping her against the bathroom counter, then pulling back. “We gonna start having sleepovers soon?” He asked, working his hands up beneath the hem of her towel to rub at her lower back.

She bit the inside of her cheek. “I want to,” she told him, reaching back so she could rub her fingertips over the back of his head.

He shifted slightly so that he was looking into the mirror too, his eyes hot.

“Fuck, I want you,” he said, grinding his erection against her ass. Beth’s mouth fell open a little.

“Rio,” she groaned, her grip on his head turning sharp as she curled her fingers and her nails scratched him.

Turning, she undid his jeans.

He made a noise as she took him in hand. “Let me take care of you,” she told him.

He sucked his lower lip into his mouth, but nodded. He stayed quiet as Beth stroked him, biting his lip against the moans that wanted to come out. He wanted to tell he how good she was making him feel. How badly he wanted to stay the night, him and Marcus, with her and the kids.

She wasn’t interested in dragging it out or teasing, she just worked him with a tight fist, kissing the underside of his jaw or his neck from time to time.

When he spilled into her hand, he groaned softly.

Beth turned around to wash her hands carefully as Rio’s breathing slowed.

“That ain’t fair,” he said, plastering himself against her back.

“Life isn’t fair,” she replied.

Rio bit the nape of her neck.

————————————

It had been decided that it was easiest for Rio’s family to visit Beth’s house to hopefully make the kids a little more comfortable with it all. And, though Rio didn’t say it, so that Beth wouldn’t panic as much.

The weather was starting to cool off, meaning it was likely the last barbecue of the season, but with Michigan, one never knew.

Rio and Marcus got to the house early, partly to help set up, but mostly to distract Beth and the kids. Jane in particular was very concerned with the whole ordeal.

“If your mom doesn’t like us, will you and Mommy break up?” she’d asked him when he came through the door, wide eyed.

He’d crouched in front of her. “Hey pop,” he said to Marcus, “you think your abuela’s going to like Jane?”

Marcus nodded. “She’ll really like you guys!” he promised Jane. “She likes everybody, except for maybe not Mrs Gonzalez because she keeps stealing abuela’s favourite pew at church. Tia Lora will like you too and my cousins and my Tio Nick.”

“You’re very likeable,” Rio told Jane with a grin. “So you don’t have anything to worry about, okay peanut?” She nodded.

Then the fun began.

Jane and Emma both wanted him to braid their hair. Jane wanted to wear her Easter dress, but Beth vetoed that.

“We aren’t dressing up, honey,” Beth said as she plated apple cake.

“Then why are you wearing your purple dress?” Jane asked, lifting the hem of Beth’s dress a little. “Can’t I wear my Easter dress? You said that we should make a good impression.”

Rio kept going on Emma’s hair, nearing the end.

“You’ll make a good impression no matter what, peanut,” Rio assured Jane.

She gave him a look. “You’re a boy,” she huffed, “you wouldn’t get it.”

Rio started to chuckle. “Oh is that how it is now?” he asked. “Because I gotta tell you, I’ve met your aunt.”

“Aunt Annie doesn’t count,” Jane insisted.

“And your cousin is better dressed than any of us,” Rio went on, tying off Emma’s hair.

Jane nodded. “That’s true. Can I wear a bowtie like Sadie?”

“What?” Beth said, half paying attention to whatever Danny was doing outside.

“A bowtie,” Jane repeated. “You said I can’t wear my Easter dress, but I could wear a bowtie.”

“You have to wear a bowtie with a collared shirt,” Emma told her younger sister.

“I have a collared shirt,” Jane said.

Beth touched Jane’s chin. “But I don’t think that we have a bowtie, sweetie.”

“Oh.” Jane’s shoulders slumped a little.

“Maybe your cousin has one that he can lend you,” Beth said, “and then if it’s something that you’d like, we can find one for you.”

Jane considered the offer. “Okay,” she finally agreed.

Paola arrived first, several trays of food in her car. When Beth gave her a look, she just laughed. “Hello Beth. Before you get angry, I couldn’t help it either,” she said, giving Beth a touch on the arm. “Now, let’s meet your babies.”

Emma, already in the hall, came forward slowly.

“You must be Emma,” Paola said with a smile.

“Hi.” Emma stuck close to Beth, but Paola didn’t seem offended. “You’re Rio’s mom?”

Paola nodded. “You can call me Miss Paola. I think that’s easiest.”

By that point, Danny had been drawn to the door by the sounds of someone arriving and, though quiet, was a bit more comfortable with Rio’s mother, shaking her hand and offering her a drink. For her part, Paola seemed delighted when Danny went to go get her a lemonade.

“They aren’t normally this polite,” Beth muttered. “I think Marcus might be a good influence.”

Paola was still laughing when Marcus came down with Jane, throwing himself at his grandmother’s middle and hugging her.

Lora and her family weren’t far behind, pulling up to the house right as Paola finished meeting the kids. The moment his sister stepped from the car, Beth could see the familial resemblance between her and Rio.

“Hi!” Lora called out with a wave, opening the back so her kids could get out while her husband got something from the trunk.

Getting to the house, Lora held out a hand for Beth to shake. “So you’re the infamous Elizabeth.”

“Just Beth is good.” She shook Lora’s hand, then Nick’s after he handed something off to Rio with a laugh and a pat on the back.

“I’m Mina,” the little girl stuck out her hand too. “And this is Alex.”

She was holding her little brother’s hand with her left as Beth shook her right. “It’s nice to meet you, Mina and Alex. These are my kids - Kenny, Emma, Jane, and Danny.”

“You know me!” Marcus called out, moving to give his aunt a hug.

Lora screwed up her face. “I don’t know about that. He familiar to you?” she asked her husband, who peered at Marcus, then shook his head.

“Not ringing any bells. Do we go to the same gym?” Nick asked Marcus, who rolled his eyes. “The grocery store?”

“Not funny,” Marcus told them.

“We’re hilarious.” Nick ruffled Marcus’ hair.

Marcus looked over at his dad and sighed. “Do I have to pretend that Tio’s jokes are funny?”

Rio started laughing. “Shut down by a six-year-old,” he said to Nick. “And no, you don’t. His jokes are bad.”

Nick bent down to pick up Alex. “Alex thinks my jokes are funny.”

The boy stared, blank faced, at his dad for a moment.

“Everyone’s turning on me today, huh?” Nick shook his head as the others laughed.

“Come on in,” Beth motioned for them to move beyond the foyer. “Mina, Alex, the kids were playing out in the backyard if you want to go out.”

Alex immediately started to push away from his dad, who put him down.

“I’ll supervise,” Paola said happily, taking Alex’s hand and keeping him from running. “Rio, come and help.”

Nick followed after Rio and his mother with a backwards glance over his shoulder. Catching Beth’s eye, he winked.

“Don’t let her intimidate you too much,” he said before going out the backdoor.

Lora made a noise of exasperation. “Why does everyone keep acting like I’m the big bad sister?”

Beth smiled, leading her into the kitchen. “Would you like something to drink? Eat? I made an apple cake this morning.”

“I’ll have some of that,” Lora replied, taking a seat at the counter. “You’ve even got my mom singing your praises when it comes to desserts and she’s a tough critic.”

Going to the other side, Beth uncovered the cake and cut a piece, transferring it to a plate.

Beth passed the slice of apple cake to Lora, who accepted it happily.

She took a bite and chewed slowly, eyes on Beth.

Lora took another bite of cake. “My brother wasn’t kidding. You are good.”

Beth laughed, feeling self conscious. “Well, I’m good enough that people pay me to cook and bake for them.”

Lora nodded, glancing out to the back yard where Nick and Rio were keeping an eye on the kids as they spoke to Paola. “You’re good for him too,” she commented.

Beth was surprised at how forthright Lora was.

“My brother can get stuck in his head sometimes,” Lora explained. “Gets caught up in analyzing everything that he forgets he’s gotta do something.”

“Rio?” Beth looked at the man in question. “Are we talking about the same guy?”

“That’s what I mean. He actually makes moves around you instead of doing his silent and stoic thing.”

“Rio?” Beth repeated. That sounded nothing like him. He was warm and open - had been since the beginning. Sometimes, it seemed like she’d never be able to get him to be quiet, although that was mostly in bed. Lora probably wouldn’t appreciate that knowledge.

“Not around family,” Lora clarified. “But with people he doesn’t know.”

“I’m still not sure that I believe that,” Beth said.

Lora smiled. “Exactly. That’s why you’re good for him. He said you have a little sister?” Beth nodded. “I’m sure you know what I mean then. You always see them as your baby sibling, following you around and letting you take the lead.”

“It’s not quite like that with me and my sister,” Beth said.

“Oh.” Lora broke off a piece of cake and popped it into her mouth. “Well, Rio’s my baby brother. I had to teach him that he didn’t have to run to Mom and tell her every little thing. Hell, I taught him how to pour cereal. Visited him in juvie too.”

“It must have been hard.”

Lora shrugged. “It was what it was. I just want him to be happy now. You seem to make him happy. But, if that changes -“

“You’ll murder me and throw my body in the lake?” Beth suggested when Lora trailed off.

Laughing, Lora shook her head. “I was gonna say I’d TP your house.”

“Even worse,” Beth shot back. “I’d have to clean up that mess.”

Lora smiled. “Exactly.”

“So,” Beth took a sip of her coffee, “how did you and Nick meet?”

————————

Lora stepped outside, taking in the well kept yard. She dabbled in gardening, Rio had said. To Lora’s eye, it looked like it was more than dabbling, but she wasn’t the green thumb of the family. If it weren’t for Nick’s ability to keep plants alive, they’d have grass and grass alone at the house.

Sliding her sunglasses on, she went to the patio table where Rio sat, watching Nick play goalie for an interesting looking game of soccer. She snorted as her husband missed a ball, very much on purpose.

“Done your interrogation?” Rio asked, not bothering to hide his glare.

Lora rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses. “Yes, I am.”

“Verdict?”

“I like her,” Lora said. “Mom does too.”

Rio relaxed slightly. Lora took the seat next to him and rubbed her hand over his head, the way she always had when he was little. He ducked away.

“Lora!” he hissed, shoving her away.

She smiled at her little brother. “It’s not like you’ve got hair I can mess up,” she said. “I had a couple of pieces of that apple cake and I gotta say, if it ever comes down to you or her, I’m siding with her. That was amazing.”

Rio laughed. “Yeah, I wouldn’t fault you for that.”

“I mean, I married Nick for his pasta,” she looked over to the man in question, who was now leaving the net to run across towards the other goal, Mina and Marcus clinging to his legs, “so we know where my priorities lie.”

He shook his head.

Lora decided to tease Rio a little. “She’s very pretty too.”

Rio’s lips twitched. “Yeah, she’s hot as hell.”

She reached over and smacked her brother lightly on the back of the head. “Don’t be crass.”

————

A couple of hours later, Rio sat next to his mother as the kids played tag. Lora’s family had left, but Beth had invited Paola to stick around.

“They seem like sweet kids,” she remarked, watching Kenny slow down on purpose so that Jane could catch him.

“They are,” Rio agreed. “Elizabeth is a good mother.”

She laughed and patted Rio’s arm. “She is.”

They didn’t say anything for a few minutes.

“You love her,” Paola said.

Rio glanced at his mother. Of course she knew. “Yeah.”

“Good. I’m happy for you. She feels the same?”

Rio nodded.

Paola wrapped her arm around his waist and leaned her head against his shoulder for a moment before straightening up. “I worried about you getting lonely. I’m glad that you aren’t.”

“Yeah, you can’t really get lonely with this bunch,” Rio said with a wink to Beth as she approached.

“Can’t you?” Beth replied, taking a seat and kicking up her legs onto Rio’s lap.

He shook his head, dropping his hands to her sandals and starting to undo them. “They’re noisy.”

She scoffed. “We’re noisy? You sound like a herd of elephants coming down the stairs.”

“He’s still doing that?” Paola laughed. “Rio! I thought that I taught you better.”

Rio glanced back and forth between them. “I’m being teamed up on.”

“Yes, you are,” Paola told him. “Because you are too noisy.”

“Why do I need to be quiet when I’m coming down the stairs?” Rio asked, looking up at the sky.

“It’s considered polite,” Paola said. “Are you letting Marcus develop that kind of behaviour?”

Beth giggled. “No, Marcus knows how to take the stairs quietly.”

Paola sighed. “Thank god for small miracles. Now, I think it’s about time that I headed out. I have the church bake sale in the morning.” She turned to Rio. “Should I pick up Marcus here?”

Rio’s eyes widened and he understood how a deer in headlights felt.

Beth, pink cheeked, answered for him. “Uh, we aren’t doing that yet.”

His mother nodded. “Then I’ll be by to pick him up at the usual time.” She stood and Beth followed to help her pack up some leftovers as Rio went to grab the kids to say goodbye.

They’d all relaxed quite a bit around Paola, though they kept their distance as they said their goodbyes, unlike Marcus, who gave her a hug and accepted her kisses on his cheeks.

He was walking back up the driveway with Beth after seeing his mother off when Beth’s phone went off. She reached into the pocket of her dress and took it out to check.

“Damn, damn, damn,” Beth was muttering under her breath.

Rio set a hand on her hip. “You okay?”

She sighed. “Annie sent me an SOS. Asked if I could come over.”

“So go. We’ll stay here until you get back,” Rio offered.

Beth rubbed her chin. “You’re sure?”

He nodded.

“Thank you,” she said, going up on her tiptoes to kiss him. “I’ll just tell the kids where I’m going. If it turns out to be serious, can you tell the kids to start getting ready for bed? I won’t be any later than 8:30 or so, but if you and Marcus need to -“

Rio cut her off with a lingering kiss. “Me and Marcus are good. He conks out on the couch, I can carry him to bed. Go check on your sister.”

Beth gave him a quick peck, then raced off to let the kids know she was heading off.

Most of the cleaning was already done, but Rio finished loading the dishwasher and started it as he waited for water to boil. He took out the box of tea that had appeared one day and dropped a teabag into the mug Jane had made for him. He caught sight of Kenny coming into the kitchen and climbing onto one of the stools at the counter.

The water finished boiling and he turned off the stove, poured it into the mug.

Turning around, Rio leaned against the kitchen counter, cup of tea in hand, and waited for Kenny to say something. Beth’s eldest was taking the divorce the hardest, she’d said. After all, he had all kinds of happy memories of Beth and Dean together. Ever since Beth had introduced Rio to the kids as her boyfriend, Kenny had been unpredictable. Jane and Emma had been easy, even Danny seemed to adjust to his presence in the house easily enough.

One day, he was eager for Rio to help him with math and the next he wanted anything but. He’d be polite, then he’d be making pointed comments to his mother about how he wished Dean were around. They were wearing on Beth and his trips to see the counsellor had been making a difference, but she was still struggling.

Kenny fidgeted a bit. “What are you drinking?” he finally asked.

“Tea,” Rio said. “Want some?”

Kenny made a face. “I tried some of Mom’s once.”

Rio snorted. “Your mom has terrible taste in tea,” he said. It had probably been old English Breakfast or something. “This is the good stuff.”

“I guess I could try a little.”

Rio set down his mug and measured out some leaves, dropped them in the teabag and poured hot water into a mug. “Marcus likes it with honey,” he remarked, not looking up. “Want to try it that way?”

“Sure.”

He took the honey from the cupboard and added a spoonful. Figuring it was best if it wasn’t strong, he took the bag out, gave it a stir, and took it to Kenny. “It’ll need a couple minutes to cool down.”

Kenny nodded, looking more like Beth than Rio had ever seen him as he screwed up his mouth.

“Was there something you wanted?” Rio asked.

He watched Kenny chew on his lip and dart his gaze everywhere but Rio. Rio just waited. Beth would be back in a bit, but they had time.

“Do you love my mom?”

Rio sipped his tea, then set down his mug. “I love your mother,” he answered.

Kenny finally looked at him. “She loves you,” he told Rio, “I heard her say it to Aunt Ruby the other day.”

“I know. She’s told me.”

Kenny swayed back and forth a little on his stool. “You aren’t my dad.”

“I know,” Rio said. “Your mother isn’t Marcus’ mom either.”

Kenny nodded.

“But,” Rio said, leaning against the counter, “she cares about him and I care about you guys. I’d like to be part of your life, but that doesn’t make your dad any less important to you.”

“Jane gets confused.”

Rio’s brow wrinkled in confusion.

“She called you Daddy earlier when Marcus was doing it and then she got really quiet,” Kenny explained.

Oh. He nodded in understanding. “Does your mom know?”

A shake of the head.

“I’ll talk to her about it,” Rio promised. “We can figure out what you all are most comfortable with.”

Kenny took a sip of the tea. “It’s not as gross as Mom’s tea,” he said, making Rio laugh.

“But it’s not your favourite?” Rio guessed.

“Maybe not.” But Kenny still stayed at the counter, drinking the tea slowly and asking Rio questions about tattooing. He answered them honestly, explaining how he’d been trained, what it felt like, how people reacted to him having them.

Eventually, Kenny finished his tea and disappeared into the living room while Rio finished off his own. He hand washed the mug and set it to dry, then went to let Marcus know that they’d be heading out as soon as Beth got back.

Rio froze in the doorway to the living room when he saw Marcus, Danny, and Kenny sitting on the carpet with a bin of Lego.

“You have to alternate the blocks,” Danny was explaining as he showed Marcus something that Rio couldn’t see, “so that the layers overlap. Then it’s stronger. See?”

He leaned against the door frame.

“Especially at the corners, see,” Danny went on.

“Can we put in a window?” Marcus wanted to know.

“Yup,” Kenny answered, digging through the bin and pulling out a piece. “Like this?”

Marcus took the offered piece and put it in place, then beamed up at Kenny and Danny. Rio retreated back to the kitchen, not wanting to interrupt.

————————

Beth worked the knitting needles, ignoring Annie’s pointed glare. Finally Annie broke.

“What are you making?” Annie asked.

Beth paused. “A hat.”

“A hat for who?” Annie’s eyes narrowed.

“Oh, you know who,” Ruby chuckled. “Beth’s got to keep Rio’s bald little head warm if she wants to keep getting some.”

Beth debated tossing the ball of yarn at Ruby, but knew it would just make more work for her in the end.

“You making one for Marcus too?”

Beth looked over at Ruby and nodded. “A Spiderman one.”

“Oh!” Ruby straightened. “Can you do one for Harry too?”

“If you would just calm down and wait for your son’s birthday,” she said.

Ruby zipped her mouth shut and mimed locking it, handing the key to Annie, who pretended to swallow it.

“You’re children,” Beth told them.

Annie giggled. “Yeah, but we’re your children.” Her laughter trailed off.

Beth and Ruby waited.

“Boomer threatened to fire me if I didn’t go out with him.”

Beth put down the needles and joined Annie on the couch, wrapping her arms around her little sister’s shoulders. “Want me to murder him?”

“Because we will,” Ruby reached out to run her hand over Annie’s hair. “Stan’ll help.”

Annie sniffed. “I need to quit, but I don’t know where to -“

“Come work with us full-time,” Ruby said without pause. It wasn’t like she and Beth hadn’t discussed it before. “You’re weirdly good at event catering for someone who hates people and organizing.”

Annie started to shake her head. “I don’t need you to -“

“Hey,” Beth squeezed her, “who convinced us to give this a real go? Who kept poking at me about Dean until I finally did something? You’re a Good Girl too. It’s not charity or being nice or anything like that. It’s you being where you’re supposed to be - with us.”

Ruby leaned in a little closer. “Plus, then you can answer the phones, which Beth hates doing. This is not entirely altruistic.”

Annie giggled, burying her face into Beth’s shoulder, then Ruby’s. “I hate you guys.”

“Of course you do,” Beth patted her leg, “we’re awful.”

——————————

Fall hit with a vengeance as if to make up for summer lingering into September. As usually happened, talk turned to Halloween costumes almost the second that the leaves started to change colour.

“Jane could be Spider-Gwen,” Marcus suggested after school one day.

Jane made a face. “I don’t want to be Spider-Gwen.”

Rio just kept eating his grapes, waiting for the two of them to reach some kind of conclusion that required his input.

“Honey,” Beth tried to mediate, “you did ask for suggestions.”

“But I don’t want to be Spider-Gwen!” Jane huffed, glaring at Marcus. “Not everyone likes Spiderman, Marcus.”

Marcus’ head pulled back. “Oh.”

“Jane!” Beth said. “You don’t have to be rude.”

Jane slid off the stool and turned on her heel to head up to her room.

Marcus looked a little lost, but Danny stuck his head into the kitchen to ask Marcus if he wanted to help with a Lego build. Beth sighed with relief when Marcus cheered up.

“We knew that there would be friction at some point,” Beth said, pulling her hair off her neck and rolling her head from side to side. “I just didn’t think it would be over Halloween costumes.”

Rio nodded, still eating grapes. Beth went to sit next to hm, reaching out a hand to steal a few. “You’re quiet.”

“I’m thinking,” he said.

“Silently?” Beth asked. He hummed. “About the kids?”

He nodded.

“Wanna share?”

A grunt. “They might just need a little time apart. They’ve been attached at the hip for a few months.” He took her hand, tracing the lines in her palm. “I think they need to sort this out themselves.”

Beth sighed. “I know. Doesn’t mean that I like it though.”

“They’re figuring out their dynamic, Elizabeth,” he said. “We can’t do it for them.”

They’d had the discussion about what the kids should call them after the incident with Jane calling him ‘daddy’, and agreed that it was okay for the kids to be informal - Rio for the Boland kids and Beth for Marcus was just fine - but that it was up to the kids if they ever wanted to use different terms.

“Having any second thoughts about our sleepover this weekend?” Beth asked, tone deceptively light.

Rio started tapping a beat against her skin. “Nope. Are you?”

She blushed slightly, but shook her head.

Jane came back downstairs shortly after, joining Marcus and her brother. Rio caught her looking at Marcus for a moment, then passing him a brick that he seemed to need. The two of them smiled at each other and Rio felt a sense of relief.

———————————

The first night that Beth stayed over at Rio’s when Marcus was there, she arrived to find that Marcus seemed dedicated to the idea that it was a sleepover.

“We can stay up and we can have popcorn,” he told her excitedly as she set her bag down by Rio’s closet.

Rio cut in from across the loft, “We’re not having popcorn.”

Marcus turned to Beth and gave her puppy dog eyes to rival anything her kids had thrown at her. Beth took a seat on the couch, positioning herself so that she could watch Rio moving around in the kitchen.

“Sorry Marcus,” Beth said, “Dad’s rules.”

He sighed and collapsed on the couch at Beth’s side. “I’m always allowed popcorn when I have sleepovers.”

“It’s a bit different for adults,” she explained, ruffling his hair. Rio, chopping eggplant, coughed a laugh. “Do all of your friends have the same traditions when you stay at their house?”

Marcus lifted his head. “Gabe’s mom doesn’t let him have popcorn at home. But she makes really good waffles for breakfast. Can we have waffles?”

Beth laughed. “We’ll see what we can do,” she whispered to him, eyes still on Rio.

“I actually have something for you,” Beth said and reached into her bag. “For both of you.”

It didn’t take her long to find whatever she was looking for and she pulled something out. Two somethings. She handed one to Rio and one to Marcus.

Rio looked down at the knit cap that Beth had just shoved into his hands. “You make it?” He asked, rubbing his fingers over it. The wool was soft, nothing like that of the beanies he normally bought. Beth smiled, her cheeks pink, and nodded.

Marcus had already pulled his on. “It’s Miles!”

They both glanced at Marcus to see that she had indeed made Marcus a Spiderman hat in black with red and white features.

“You’re always saying that he’s your favourite,” Beth explained, “and I thought maybe this would make it a little easier for you to wear your hat on one of those cold days.”

Marcus grinned up at Rio. “Yours is nice too, Dad,” he said.

Rio put his on and looked at Beth. “How do we look?” He asked.

Beth laughed and stepped towards him, went up on her toes and kissed his cheek. “Very handsome. Both of you.” She bent down to give Marcus a kiss on the crown of his head. Marcus wrapped his arms around her middle.

“Thanks Beth.”

“You are most welcome,” she told him.

It wasn’t the first time they’d had dinner together - far from it, so it didn’t really start to feel weird until it started to get late and Marcus put on a mismatched pair of pjs. “I like them this way,” he explained to her, “because then I get to wear cars and dinosaurs.”

“It’s kind of like the dinosaurs are riding the cars.” Beth righted the shirt. “They wouldn’t be very good drivers though.”

Marcus giggled. “No, they wouldn’t. They wouldn’t even fit!”

“Maybe they’d have big cars,” Rio suggested, lifting Marcus up and carrying him back towards his room. “Did you pick a book?”

“Wait!” Marcus yelped, wriggling until Rio stopped. “Are you going to put your pjs on too, Beth?”

She nodded. “Sure.” She’d brought some with her, but when she took them from her bag, Rio intercepted her and snatched them from her hands before she could go change in the bathroom. He handed her the shirt she usually wore when she slept over.

“At least give me the pants,” Beth hissed. He thought about it, then handed the drawstring sleep pants back. “Thank you.”

She came out of the bathroom to find Marcus curled up with a book on the couch next to Rio. When Beth went to join them, he sat up. “Will you read with us?”

“What are we reading?” Beth took Marcus’ other side as Rio finished up typing something on his phone, then set it on the coffee table. Face down. Without checking, she knew it was on silent as well. He took his time with people seriously and didn’t leave much room for interruptions.

Marcus showed her the cover. “King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table,” he said, tracing his fingers over the letters. “Dad’s good at reading stories.”

Marcus passed the book to Rio, then shifted on the couch until he was leaning against Beth. Instinctively, she wrapped her arm around his shoulders and tucked her feet to the side so that her stacked thighs would support him. As she did it, she felt a little pang. Elsewhere, Dean was hopefully reading their kids a story. Or at least Jane, who still liked having one read to her before bed.

Her throat felt like it was closing up, but she took a few deep breaths and swallowed.

Rio opened the book to the page where a bookmark sat. It had clearly been made by Marcus - two figures were drawn side by side, labelled with Rio’s writing. Dad. Marcus. It had been drawn during that period when children draw people without bodies, just heads with arms and legs. It was a piece of yellow construction paper, but it had been laminated. Beth would have bet anything that if she turned it over, it would have a date on the back, some indication of Marcus’ age.

As Rio started to read, angling the book so that Marcus could follow along, Beth got even more choked up. They were two pages in when Rio looked up as he turned the page and instantly went on alert.

“Elizabeth?” He flipped the book over on his leg so he could let it go and reached over towards her.

She started to say that she was fine when Marcus wiggled until he could look at her too and she burst into tears at the sight of his big brown eyes.

She could vaguely register a few things - Marcus moving so that Rio could pull her into his arms, then settling against her other side and hugging her too. “What’s wrong, Dad? Did I do something?”

“No, pop.” Rio let go of Beth to offer his son a reassuring touch. “What’s wrong, Elizabeth?”

“Sorry, I’m a mess,” she sobbed into his shirt.

Marcus’ weight disappeared and there was the sound of running feet, then a box of Kleenex was being put in her lap.

“Thank you, Marcus,” Beth managed to get out.

It took a few minutes for her to calm down enough to explain herself. “I just started to miss my kids,” she said, wiping at her cheeks with a tissue. “Hit me all at once.”

“They can stay over too,” Marcus offered. “Jane and Emma can take my bed.”

Beth laugh-sobbed. “That’s very sweet of you. It’s a bit more complicated than that.” Rio kissed the top of her head and rubbed his hand up and down her arm.

“Do you want to call them?” he asked quietly. Beth shook her head. “You sure?”

“Yeah,” she replied. “Last thing I want to do is set everyone else off.”

“Who stays at the house with you when Jane an’ Kenny an’ Danny an’ Emma are at their dad’s?” Marcus asked.

Marcus had started stroking the back of her hand as they talked. Normally he looked so much like Rio that it was almost scary. Not just his features, but the confident way that he held himself and spoke. This though, the questions and attempt to comfort, was something different. She could see hints of Rio’s methods, especially in the physical touch, but there was a gentle quality to his voice that she hadn’t heard from him before.

Maybe he’d learned it from his mom. Maybe it was something that was Marcus’ own.

“I stay by myself,” Beth answered. “Sometimes your dad stays with me.”

“Oh.” Marcus was lost in thought for a few minutes, but he didn’t stop touching her hand, just started to play with her fingers. He seemed to reach a conclusion. “You should stay with us.”

“Pop,” Rio said, setting his hand on Marcus’ shoulder.

Beth had to smile at the earnestness in Marcus’ expression, his clear cut solution.

“Or maybe we come stay with you because then you can have your own room and you don’t have to share.”

Rio let out a sigh. “You’re not even listening to me, are you.”

“How about,” Beth offered, “for now, you give me a hug and then we let your dad finish reading. We can talk about the rest later.”

Marcus nodded, then shimmied so that he could wrap his arms around her neck. Beth squeezed him tightly and kissed his temple. When she let go, he settled back into her side. “You can go back to reading,” he informed Rio.

When they all went to bed, Rio kissed her cheeks all over, murmuring in Spanish. Beth had taken French all through school and had no idea what he was saying beyond a few words that she could pick out, but his tone was soothing and combined with his hand rubbing her back, she fell asleep without too much trouble.

——————————

It turned out that Rio didn’t own a functioning waffle iron, so Beth made crepes.

“I’ll pick one up,” he told her, standing behind her as she poured batter into the pan. “We can have waffles next time.”

“Next time?” Beth asked, shifting to see his face.

“Next time,” he repeated. “Unless you don’t want to.”

“No, no,” she rushed to say, “I’d like that.”

“Me too,” Marcus piped up from the kitchen table.

Rio smothered his laugh in her hair. “I’d better cut those berries,” he said, with one last squeeze.

Beth showed Marcus how to fold a crepe around berries or maple syrup and brown sugar.

“I think I like crepes better than I like waffles,” Marcus declared after having one of each kind.

“Yeah?” Beth cut a piece and popped it in her mouth.

He nodded. Then, a little shyly, he said, “Maybe that can be our thing. For when you come here.”

The suggestion made Beth smile. “I’d like that,” she told Marcus. “As long as you’re okay with sharing that thing with the others sometimes.”

“Yeah,” he assured her. “But they like waffles better.” He blinked innocently at her, widening his eyes slightly.

“Did you learn that from your dad?” Beth asked.

“Learn what?” Marcus asked, still looking wide eyed.

Rio chuckled, watching the two of them chat as he drank his tea. “Don’t try to pin that on me,” he told Beth. “He got that on his own. It’s his natural charm.”

Beth looked between the two of them.

“I can’t help but feel like I’m being hustled,” she said, eyes on Rio.

His expression didn’t change. “Honey, if we were hustling you, you wouldn’t know.”

Beth smiled as she continued to eat her crepe.

“What’s hustling mean?” Marcus asked, causing Rio to choke on his sip of tea.

Smiling at him, Beth said sweetly, “I’ll leave that one to you. Honey.”

He scowled. “You’re the one who brought it up.”

“What’s it mean?” Marcus asked again, stealing a piece of Rio’s breakfast while his dad was occupied. “Is it bad?”

Sighing, Rio blocked Marcus’ fork when he went back for more.

—————————

A few days later, Rio was in the shop when his phone rang. The caller ID said Cassie, which meant it was likely Marcus. He accepted the call and was immediately greeted with a cheerful “Hi!”

“Hey pop,” Rio said with a smile. “How was school?”

“It was good,” Marcus replied, “but we’re doing presentations and they’re taking forever! Ms. G said it had to be under 5 minutes but Jessie’s was eight minutes.”

“And how long was yours?” Rio asked.

“Four minutes and thirty two seconds,” Marcus said proudly.

Rio didn’t doubt it. Marcus was a stickler for the rules sometimes, especially when it came to school activities.

“Went okay?”

“Ms. G said it was really good,” Marcus told him. “I got a level four.”

“That’s great pop!” Rio praised his son, kicking his feet up. “How was taekwondo?”

“It was fun,” Marcus said. “Jane says hi.”

Rio smiled. “I hope you said hi back to her from me.”

Marcus laughed. “I did. Can we have a sleepover at their house?”

Rio put down the marker he’d been twirling in his fingers. With Beth staying the night at the loft and him staying at the house tonight, they were inching towards that. Obviously, it would have to be at Beth’s - there was no way the kids would fit in the loft comfortably.

“Or maybe Jane can stay at our place!” Marcus went on. “She can have my bed and I’ll stay on the floor.”

He chuckled. “I’m sure we can work something out. Remember that I told you I was staying there tonight? Just like Beth stayed at the loft with us last week?”

“Yeah. That’s why I think I should sleep over too next time!”

Rio grinned up at the ceiling.

“And - and Halloween is coming up!” Marcus said. “If we’re going trick or treating in their neighbourhood, we should just stay overnight.”

“We should, huh?”

“Yup,” Marcus replied. “It makes sense. You shouldn’t drive when you’re tired and you’ll probably be really tired after trick or treating.”

Rio laughed out loud. “I’ll give it some thought, okay?”

Marcus sighed. “Okay.”

—————————

“Mommy says that you’re sleeping over tonight.”

Rio looked up at Emma, who was standing in the kitchen, leaning against the counter. Then he finished taking off his shoes. “I am.”

“And she stayed with you and Marcus.”

Rio nodded, not entirely sure where Emma was going to take this.

“Are you going to get married?”

Rio shrugged off his overnight bag and let it drop to the floor. “We don’t have plans for that,” he said carefully. “Why do you ask?”

She shrugged. “A girl in my class - Dani, her mom is getting remarried, but she doesn’t like her mom’s boyfriend.”

Rio took a seat. “Is that you saying that you don’t like me?” he teased her.

Her eyes widened and she started to shake her head. “No, we like you! We like you a lot!”

He smiled at her. “I like you guys a lot too,” he replied.

“I just -“ Emma looked down at her feet. “It’s stupid.”

“It probably isn’t,” Rio told her.

“Will you talk to us if you decide to ask Mommy to marry you?”

That wasn’t the question that Rio had been expecting. “Dani’s mom’s boyfriend didn’t talk to her?”

Emma shook her head. “Her mom and her boyfriend went on vacation to Aruba and when they came back, they were engaged.”

“Hey,” Rio only hesitated for a second before setting his hand on Emma’s shoulder, “you guys are the most important people in your mom’s life. Anything that happens, you’re all going to be involved.”

“Promise?”

“Promise,” Rio said, holding up his pinky finger. She giggled, but hooked hers with his and shook. “Anything else?”

“No. That’s it,” Emma said.

“Alright.” Rio got up. “Your sister around?”

“She’s in the living room,” Emma told him. “Why?”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his gift. Catching on immediately, Emma smiled.

“She’ll love it.”

Rio left the kitchen and went to the living room where Jane was watching a cartoon.

“Got something for you,” Rio said to Jane when she poked her head over the back of the couch to see who had come into the room.

She perked up. “What is it?”

Rio passed Jane a bundle of fabric.

“What is it?” she asked, uncoiling it.

Rio laughed. “Bowtie.”

Her eyes widened. “Really?”

“Jojo went through a phase,” he said, taking it out of her hands and crouching down to start tying it. “I asked her about them and she had lots. Did I do a good job picking?”

Jane picked up the end of the bowtie and nodded. “I like polka dots.”

Considering half of her clothing had polka dots on it, Rio had been able to guess that. He finished tying the bowtie.

“There.”

She raced off to the bathroom to take a look in the mirror.

“I gotta put on a collared shirt,” she called out, then bolted for the stairs, slowing down once she started to climb them before he had to call out for her to slow down.

“What’s happening?” Danny lifted his head to look over the back of the couch.

Rio gestured towards where Jane had gone. “Bowtie.”

“Oh.” Danny’s head disappeared again.

“What’s all the commotion?” Beth came out of her bedroom, brushing her hair.

“Brought Jane a bowtie,” he explained.

“You did?” she asked when she reached him.

He bent to give her a kiss. “Yeah. Jojo has a collection. When I asked, she was ready to hand the whole box over once she found it again.” He laughed. “But I didn’t think that was a good idea.”

“Yeah, it would not have been.”

Jane made a surprising amount of noise for such a small person as she came back downstairs.

“I can’t do it up,” she said, coming into the room with her blue dress shirt unbuttoned.

“Honey,” Beth sighed. “What did I say?”

Jane kicked her foot back and forth. “Go slow?”

“And?”

“And start at the bottom.”

Beth nodded. “Give it a try.”

It took Jane a minute to slowly work her way through the buttons and Rio had to step in once she got to the top to loosen the bowtie.

“Alright,” he said, “all the buttons get done up when you wear a tie.”

Jane did up the last two.

“And you want your collar to be flipped up,” he explained as he did just that. He adjusted the bowtie so that it sat properly without being too tight. “Once you’ve got the tie on, you put it back down.”

Jane reached up to help him with that step and then grinned.

“Can you take a picture of me?” Jane asked, passing him the tablet that was on the coffee table. “I want to send it to Sadie and show him.” She adjusted the tie.

Rio opened up the camera and stepped back to take a few shots. Jane posed dramatically, lifting her chin so she was practically peering down her nose at him.

He bit the inside of his lip to hold back his amusement. Beth wasn’t faring as well - her lips were twitching wildly, but her eyes were suspiciously wet.

“There you go.” He passed the tablet back to Jane, who went to sit on the couch.

“You good?” he asked Beth as she rolled her shoulders.

“Yeah, just sore,” she said. “The routine switched up and now it’s more shoulder and back focused. So I’m adjusting all over again.”

“I helped!” Jane called out. “I gave Mommy a massage.”

Rio looked at Beth. “It was mostly her patting my back,” she told him under her breath. “It was nice.”

Turning her around, he dug his fingers into her shoulders and rubbed.

Beth groaned and slumped.

Jane, apparently finished with her message, came to the end of the couch closest to them. “Can you do mine next?” she asked.

“Honey,” Beth said, probably about to head her off, but Rio chuckled.

“On one condition,” he replied. Jane nodded. “No lip about veggies tonight.”

Jane narrowed her eyes and considered. “Okay. Deal.” She stuck out her hand and Rio stopped massaging Beth’s shoulders to shake on it.

Dinner was boisterous. Jane, still wearing her bowtie, told them all about the extra worksheets she was doing at school. At one point, Kenny shook his head and nudged Jane while muttering, “Nerd,” under his breath.

Jane stuck her tongue out at him and when Beth scolded them, Jane didn’t seem bothered.

Homework and bedtime routines were staggered. Jane wanted him to read her a story, then kept interrupting to ask him questions.

“Haven’t you read this book before?” Rio lifted a brow. Jane grinned. “Nope. I’ve got a rule for Marcus when I’m reading stories. Questions and comments at the end of the page, especially when it’s something that’s gonna get answered in the next line.”

After that, she waited dutifully for the end of the page, then asked her questions all at once.

He rejoined the boys and Beth in the family room, where Danny was showing Beth how he was working on a light circuit.

“And once I get it so that the button turns it on and off,” he was saying as Rio came back in, “I’m gonna put in on the dollhouse for Jane.”

“Just make sure you ask first,” Beth warned. “Just because you see it as an improvement doesn’t mean that your sister will.”

Rio picked up his sketchbook and spread out at the kitchen counter so he could see into the living room as he sketched out the scene. He didn’t have any of the colours he needed, so he stuck with pencil, making notes about the colour of Beth’s shirt, Danny’s socks.

He wasn’t quite done by the time that Danny and Kenny went upstairs, but he jotted down a few last notes and shut the book in order to trail after Beth towards the main bedroom.

“So Jane figured out what she wants to be for Halloween, huh?” He palmed her hip as she grabbed her nightie and stepped around him

“Werewolf,” Beth sighed. “And she wants a store bought costume.”

Rio had to laugh at the look of disgust on her face before she shut the door behind her.

—————————

Rio looked up from his phone when Beth came into the bedroom and gave her a quick up and down. “You planning on joining a nunnery?” he asked.

Beth looked down at her nightgown, which went down to mid-calf. “Rio,” she joined him on the bed as he set his phone aside, “you think anything other than little bits of lace is dowdy, don’t you?”

“I’m just teasing, ma.” He reached for her face and pulled her down for a kiss. “They in bed?”

Beth nodded.

“Then why you wearing anything?” he asked, pushing the fabric up and off before tossing it to the side somewhere.

She grabbed the back of his neck when he lowered his head to take her nipple into his mouth. He sucked and licked, flattening his tongue and rubbing. He did the same on the other side, rolling Beth so she was lying down. Kissing the skin between her breasts, he hummed.

“Can you -“

Rio lifted his head from her neck. “Can I what?”

“Can you use a condom?” Beth asked, kneading his shoulders a little nervously. “I don’t want to deal with clean-up and -“

He cut her off with a kiss, dropping most of his weight on her. “All you had to do was ask,” he said. “You don’t need to explain.”

Beth shrugged. “I didn’t want you to be disappointed or anything.”

Rio stared right into her eyes, then sighed, lowering his head so their foreheads were pressed together. “What would disappoint me is if you did things you didn’t want to just to make me happy. Do I like fucking you bare? Yes, but it’s not a requirement.”

She clutched his shoulders. “You’re sure?”

“Uh huh.” He pulled away to grab a condom from the nightstand. “I just want to be with you,” he told her before putting it on. “Whether that’s finishing inside of you, wearing a condom, or just sleeping next to you. Okay?” He pushed her hair back.

Beth nodded.

He didn’t look like he quite believed her, but he started to run his fingers up and down her slit, dragging her wetness over her clit and applying pressure.

“Ride me?” he asked, pressing one finger, then two, into her cunt and crooking them. Beth nodded.

Throwing her leg over his waist, she lowered herself onto his cock. She watched him bite his lower lip and wanted to put her teeth on it, so she bent over to do just that. Rio chuckled when she tugged his lip free only to bite it herself.

“You make me feel so full,” she said when she let go of his lip.

Rio’s eyes widened the tiniest fraction. “Yeah?”

Beth nodded, sitting up.

“It feel good, baby?” he asked, stroking her thighs.

“Amazing,” Beth said, sliding her hips back and forth. “God, it feels so good.”

He grinned. “You gonna talk dirty to me, Elizabeth?” he asked. “Gonna say all kinds of filthy things about me?”

“Like how much I miss your cock on nights when you’re not here?”

Rio nodded. “Like that.”

“About how it doesn’t matter what I do, orgasms never feel as good as when they’re with you?” Her hands on his chest curled slightly. “Because they don’t. I think you’ve ruined me.”

“Sorry,” he said, not sounding sorry at all. “My bad.” He raised his hips sharply as she dropped down and the suddenness of the motion made Beth gasp.

She kept rocking slowly on him, enjoying how deep he was, how he felt inside of her, pressing against her walls.

“Tell me more about when you touch yourself,” Rio said.

Beth’s laugh was breathy. “What about it?” She lifted up until just the tip was still inside of her and then took him back in all at once.

“Just use those fingers?” Rio asked. “Or maybe you got something bigger.”

She shook her head.

“F’real?” His brow wrinkled. “We’ll get you something,” he said, lifting up to kiss her lips. “Those fingers don’t get anywhere deep enough, do they?”

“No,” Beth admitted.

He grinned as he bit her lip. “We’ll get you something that goes nice and deep, like I am now,” he told her, “because you’ve got all those sensitive little spots there and as much as I want to be the only one capable of making you feel like this,” he nudged his hips up, “I don’t wanna be greedy.”

Beth started moving faster. “I like when you’re greedy,” she told him, wrapping her arms around Rio’s shoulders.

“Yeah?” His hands settled on her hips and he started lifting her up and dropping her down onto his cock. “Why’s that?”

“Because you always make me come,” Beth told him. “A lot.”

Rio groaned.

“With your tongue,” she pressed her chest tight against his to talk into his ear, “your fingers, your cock. Oh god, don’t stop, don’t stop,” she begged as he picked up the pace. She was barely even lifting herself anymore. The pleasure and heat in her belly was reaching a peak and neither of them had even been playing with her clit.

Now, there was a near constant pressure against it from Rio’s pubic bone.

“I won’t,” he promised.

Her eyes slipped shut and her mouth fell open as he kept grinding her against him.

“Come on, Elizabeth,” he coaxed, “come on my cock. Come on, sweetheart.”

She squeezed around him and stopped trying to hold any of her weight up. That little bit of extra pressure was enough.

Beth cried out, burying the sound in Rio’s neck only for him to fist her hair and pull her head back so that he could press their lips together. His tongue invaded her mouth as he worked her through her orgasm, swallowing her moans until she broke the kiss.

Putting her hands on his chest, she pushed him back until he was lying down again. She wanted him to come too.

Rio’s grin was ragged as he looked up at her.

Feeling sensitive, but in the best way, Beth kept riding him. His head tipped back as he groaned and the line of his neck was too tempting to resist.

Leaning down, she got her lips on his Adam’s apple and bit him lightly.

“Again,” he moaned. She bit him again, this time a little lower and that was enough to tip him over the edge too. She kept nipping and kissing his neck as he came.

Beth gave up trying to hold herself up and just collapsed against Rio’s chest, panting softly and moaning when he shifted inside of her.

“Trying to kill me,” Rio said, kissing her temple as one of his hands came up to play with her hair. Beth shook her head and yawned.

He eventually pulled out and took care of the condom, then came back to bed and wrapping himself around her.

“You never came without us touching your clit before,” he remarked, sounding like he was already half asleep.

Flushing, Beth hummed in agreement. She hadn’t.

“It was hot as fuck,” he said against her shoulder. “We’re gonna do it again.”

“Well aren’t you cocky?” Beth responded.

He just laughed. “Baby, you just told me all sorts of things you like about what I do to you. I might be cocky, but it’s for good reason.” He kissed her shoulder. “Now shut up and go to sleep. I gotta make a good impression tomorrow morning.”

Giggling, Beth rolled her eyes, but relaxed into his arms and fell asleep.

—————————

The next morning, Rio wandered into the kitchen as he pulled on his shirt, only to find a mostly asleep Emma sitting at the counter. At the sound of his approach, her head came up off the marble.

“You’re awake early,” Rio said. “You okay?”

Emma nodded. “The birds outside my window are loud right now so I woke up early.”

“You hungry?”

“Can I please have yogurt?” Emma asked.

He got her a yogurt from the fridge and a spoon from the drawer, setting both in front of her. She perked up considerably as he turned on the coffee maker and threw some bread in the toaster.

By the time his breakfast was ready, Emma was done with her yogurt, but she was watching him closely as he moved around the kitchen. He took a seat across from her.

“Want some?” He gestured to the toast. She nodded. “Butter and jam?”

“You have both?”

“Your mom keeps good jam in the house,” Rio said, buttering the toast before adding a layer of raspberry jam. He cut the pieces into triangles, then passed one to Emma, who took it happily.

“Are you going to come to my recital?” she asked before taking a bite.

Rio blinked. “Your ballet recital?”

She nodded while she chewed.

“Would you like me to come?” Rio bit into his own piece.

Emma shrugged. “If you and Marcus wanted to come, you can.”

“Is that an invitation?” Rio asked.

Emma did the same thing Beth did when she was avoiding a question she didn’t feel like answering and looked around the room. He waited her out until finally she met his eye and nodded.

“In that case,” Rio said, ‘I’ll put it on the calendar.”

She smiled at him and nibbled on her toast. “Okay.”

“Okay,” Rio parroted back to her. From there, conversation turned to Emma’s math test and the birthday party she was going to the following weekend. Slowly, the rest of the household began to trickle in.

Jane wrapped herself around his leg with a whimper. “Can I go back to bed?” she asked.

Rio laughed, ruffling her hair. “Don’t think so, peanut. You’ve got places to be.”

“I don’t wanna.”

“Not sure your mama, or your teacher, will accept that as an excuse,” he said, bending down to hoist her up and plunk her down on one of the stools. She rubbed at her eyes and gave him a pitiful look. He was about to say she could go back to bed for a little while longer before he stopped himself. Doing that would set him up to undermine Beth.

“What do you want for breakfast?” Rio asked instead.

With a long sigh, Jane reached out to scrunch his shirt in her first. “What are you having?”

“I had some toast. Your sister had some yogurt and a bit of toast.”

Jane screwed up her face. “Eggos?”

Rio glanced to Emma, hoping if that was somehow against Beth’s usual breakfast rules, Emma would do something to let him know. She seemed to understand his questioning look and nodded.

“She has to pick between syrup and jam though. Not both,” Emma said.

He started to make Jane’s Eggos as she fetched her own plate and cutlery. Not feeling full, he grabbed a banana and took a seat at the counter.

Almost immediately, Jane reached out to pull his hand towards her. She ran her small fingers over the ink on his forearm.

“Jane,” Emma scolded, but Rio shook his head.

“Nah, it’s okay.” He looked at Emma, who was watching with a veiled curiosity. “You want to feel too?”

She didn’t answer, but she scooted a little bit closer and reached out to rest her hand near Jane’s.

He ate his banana one armed while the two Boland girls traced the various lines and shapes on his other arm. Beth, Danny, and Kenny joined them one after the other.

“Morning,” Beth yawned, kissing each of the kids on the top of the head, then Rio’s cheek. “Oh! You made coffee!”

Rio nodded. “I’m even drinking some of it.” He held up his mug to illustrate.

Emma giggled. “Aunt Annie says that if you drink coffee, it’ll put hair on your chest.”

He choked on his mouthful, just barely managing to swallow.

Beth just ruffled Emma’s hair as she took a seat. “You shouldn’t listen to your aunt.”

“That’s not what you said when she was taking us to the movies,” Danny chimed in. “You said, “Listen to your aunt,” and then gave us a look.”

“A look?” Beth asked.

All the kids nodded.

“I have a look?”

All four of them pulled their faces into a variation of Beth’s “I’m serious,” expression. Rio started to laugh. “Kenny, you’ve got it down.”

Kenny broke, smiling as he held up his hand for a high five, which Rio gave.

“Do you have hair on your chest?”

Rio’s head jerked towards Jane, who was studying the neck of his sleep shirt - which he had not slept in - like she was expecting to see a pelt sticking out of it.

“Not much,” he said, suddenly the focus of five pairs of eyes. Beth was biting back laughter, but the kids looked interested. “And I gotta get it shaved off whenever I get a tattoo.”

“Really?” Danny leaned forward. “Why?”

He spent the rest of breakfast fielding questions about tattooing as Beth watched in amusement.

“Bye,” he ambushed Beth at the front door, kissing her softly, then again, significantly less softly. “See you later?”

She nodded. “I’m meeting with Annie and Ruby this afternoon near you.”

“Have fun.” He kissed her one last time, tickling her with his stubble before pulling away.

“Maybe I’ll stop by,” she said.

“I’d like that,” Rio told her. He gave her another kiss, then left after giving a series of goodbyes to the kids.

It was a busy commute on a weekday morning and with the errands he had to run on the way, it took him a while to get to the shop.

Rio stepped into the shop and winced at the volume of the music. He turned it down as he walked by, ignoring Jesse’s “Come on!” and heading towards his station.

He passed Stef, who lifted his head long enough to jerk his head in a nod before going back to working on the shoulder piece he was finishing. Jojo was bandaging a small bicep tattoo, giving the young woman care instructions as she did.

He paused to look at it. “Looks good,” he told Jojo. The girl Jojo had just tattooed turned red and squirmed a little. He gave her a nod, then dropped his satchel at his station and sat on his stool.

“Busy day?” Stef called out, reloading the gun.

Rio grunted. “More or less.”

“Got a little bit more less, boss,” Jesse said as he came over with a couple slips of paper. “Your two o’clock cancelled. Well, rescheduled. He’s got the flu.” He moved to the next message. “Lia said, “Tell that jerk to confirm for the con.” Your lady love called to ask if any of us are allergic to anything. I gave her the rundown, so you don’t need to call her, I just wanted to rub it in that she called.”

Rio rolled his eyes, but smiled.

“Is she bringing us treats?” Jesse asked. “Because Marcus said she’s got bomb cookies.”

He shrugged. “What Elizabeth does is up to Elizabeth. Maybe she brings you treats, maybe she doesn’t.”

Jesse pouted. “Yeah, but you could probably talk her into it.”

“I could do lots of things, Jesse,” Rio told him, “but you’d still need to do your work.”

“You’re no fun,” Jesse said, throwing up his hands.

Rio just lifted his eyebrow as he unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt to roll up his sleeves. “I’m your boss. I’m not supposed to be fun.”

Jesse smiled as he backed away. Rio knew he found being in the shop plenty of fun, even when he was working. He hadn’t exactly meant to hire a younger version of himself when he’d decided that the shop needed someone at the counter. But then Jesse had come in, days after his eighteenth birthday, to get some ink and wound up staying.

Rio would say he was turning sentimental if he didn’t already know that he’d always been like that, even before Marcus had come along and turned him real sentimental.

“Hey man,” Rio greeted Cisco at the door a short while later, pulling him into a back pounding hug. “How’ve you been?”

“Can’t complain,” Cisco shrugged, following Rio back into his workspace. “It’s been a while. What have you been up to?”

Rio grinned. “Got a girlfriend.”

“Yeah?” Cisco chuckled.

He nodded. As he prepped the spot on Cisco’s leg to tattoo, he told him about Beth.

“Shit, four kids?” Cisco looked over his shoulder to where Rio was shaving the back of his leg.

“Yup. Spent this morning explaining to ‘em that I need to shave a spot before I tattoo it.” Rio tossed the disposable razor into the bin and wiped Cisco’s leg. “I’m half tempted to take a photo of this,” he nodded his head towards the bare patch on Cisco’s calf, “and show them that I tattooed Sasquatch.”

Cisco jabbed him in the side of the head. “I should be offended.”

“Go ahead and be offended, man.” Rio applied the transfer. “Makes no difference to me.”

Cisco snorted. “What a difference getting some on the regular makes. Last time I saw you, thought you were gonna snap in half you were so tense.”

Rio shifted. That had been well over a year ago now.

“I’m glad, bro.” Cisco settled down. “You deserve it. Now get to it, I gotta go into work this afternoon.”

—————————————

“I’m dating someone.”

Beth’s head whipped up and around to look at Annie. Ruby’s surprised expression was a mirror of hers. “Oh?”

Annie nodded, kicking her feet against her chair even though she knew that Beth hated that.

“And who is this someone?” Beth asked.

“Her name is Tasia. Well, it’s Anastasia, but she goes by Tasia,” Annie babbled. “She works at one of the shops near the apartment and we got to talking a few times and then she asked me out.”

Ruby clapped her hands together. “Nah uh, young lady. We need more than that!”

Annie flushed.

“Shoe’s on the other foot now, huh?” Beth teased her sister. “How’s it feel?”

Annie just took another cookie and ate it. “She’s a year older than me. She manages that coffee place we go to sometimes. With the purple,” she held up her hand at the back of her head. Beth immediately knew who she was talking about.

“She’s cute!” she and Ruby both said at the same time.

“Yeah, she is.” Annie kicked her chair again.

“You gonna let us meet her?” Ruby asked.

“You have met her,” Annie said. When Beth and Ruby just gave her a look, she sighed and buried her face in her hands. “Not yet, okay? I haven’t even talked to Sadie about it and I want them to meet first, okay?”

“Of course,” Ruby reached out to put her hand on Annie’s, “we’re here for you. And we need to make sure that she is too. Bee, you got the interrogation checklist?”

Beth nodded. “I’ll bring the lights.”

“Oh fuck off,” Annie snapped, shoving them both away from her.

They wrapped up their meeting, plans for the upcoming weeks all hammered out.

“Where you going now?” Ruby asked after Annie dashed off. “Home?”

Beth shook her head. “Was going to stop by the shop, say hi to Rio. Leave them some treats.”

Ruby grinned. “Am I invited?”

“It’s a public space,” Beth answered, a little flustered.

“You know that’s not what I’m asking,” Ruby said, unimpressed. “But, I’m just messing with you. I have to go talk to Sara’s teacher. Apparently she’s been getting into arguments with some boy in her class.”

“Oh?” Beth walked Ruby to her car.

“I asked her about it and Sara said it’s because he keeps acting like his opinions are facts.” Ruby groaned. “Which means he’s probably an entitled little shit.”

“Well,” Beth hugged her, “good luck with that. Tell Sara that Auntie Beth is proud of her.”

Ruby hugged her back. “Will do. See you for the Gertz event?”

“If nothing else comes up.” Beth let go. “Give my love to Stan and the kids.”

“So long as you give mine to the kids,” Ruby shot back, taking her car keys out, “and Mr. Rio.”

Beth turned around and walked away to the sound of Ruby’s laughter. She stopped at the van to grab the box of muffins that she’d baked. She was fiddling with their berry crumble muffin recipe and this batch had been a good one.

It took a few minutes to walk to the shop, but it was a pleasant one. On a weekday, the neighbourhood was quieter and as she passed by shops, she recognized their names from stories Rio told. That was where he got his tea. He picked up dinner at that Thai restaurant sometimes.

Jesse was inside at the desk and recognized her right away.

“Hey!” He grinned and waved at her. “He’s just in back. You can go on through.”

Beth lifted the box and set it on the counter. Jesse lit up. “Treats?”

“Treats,” Beth said with a nod. “Mixed berry crumble muffins. And I need opinions on them, the recipe’s new. Remember to share with everyone else.”

Jesse nodded. “Sure, sure.” He opened the lid and took one out. When Beth gave him an amused look, he shrugged. “I missed breakfast.”

“Jesse,” Beth scolded him, “you shouldn’t skip breakfast. It’s the most important meal of the day. And it’s after lunch.”

“You trying to mama him?” Beth looked up to see Rio right before he came through the doorway. He went right to her and bent to give her a quick kiss. “Ruby and Annie ok?”

Beth nodded. “What are you working on?”

“Wanna see?” Rio gestured back towards his workspace. “Don’t worry, it’s not on an actual person yet.”

Beth stepped towards him, then stopped to look at Jesse. “Share,” she reminded him, then followed Rio back into the shop.

There was a big piece of tracing paper up and it took a moment for Beth to figure out what the shape was. Rio must have noticed, because he chuckled and lifted his arm to point as he said, “Back, ass, upper thighs.”

“Really?” Beth turned her head towards him, realizing that he’d shed some of the layers he’d been wearing when he left the house that morning. The plaid button-up was gone, leaving him in a white t-shirt that hugged his body.

Beth’s cheeks grew warm as she ran her eyes over his forearms.

“What?” Rio asked.

“Nothing,” she said, way too fast.

He snorted.

“Just -“ she fell silent when the front door opened, even though it was at the other end of the shop. “Tattoos.”

He reached out, put a hand on her hip. “What about ‘em?”

One of her hands came down until her fingertips were just hovering on his skin. As she ran them up and down his forearm, Rio kept his eyes on her face. She sucked her lower lip into her mouth, catching it between her teeth.

“Someone’s developing an ink kink?” Rio suggested.

She shook her head. “No!”

“No?” he repeated back to her in a teasing tone.

Beth didn’t meet his eye.

Rio chuckled, tugging slightly at her belt loop. “Because I think you are.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Beth insisted.

“So I guess it’s more of a just me kind of thing,” Rio mused.

“Are we ready for a five kid sleepover?” Beth changed the subject.

He shook his head. “I’ll let you get away with that this time,” he warned her. “But that discussion ain’t over. You’re okay with me and Marcus staying over together?”

Beth nodded. “This weekend works. I’ll just need to move some beds around.”

“Yeah?”

Another nod. “I was thinking that it makes sense to do it before Halloween. You guys should stay over then too, but it’s already a bit of a chaotic night. It might be too much to do it all at once.”

“Saturday night?” Rio lifted one of his hands to play with the piece of hair that had fallen onto her face.

“Sounds like a plan.”

————————

Late Saturday afternoon, Rio stopped in Beth’s driveway. Marcus was practically bouncing with excitement as they approached the house.

“Hey pop,” Rio put his hand on Marcus’ shoulder.

“Uh huh?” He didn’t look at Rio.

Shaking his head, Rio let them in the kitchen door. “Hey!” he called out.

There were a few hellos from different directions and Marcus finally looked to Rio, holding out his hands for his overnight bag. Rio passed it to him and Marcus bolted for the stairs, but slowed before starting to climb them.

Beth came in from the backyard.

“Hey,” she greeted him with a kiss. “Marcus went to set up?”

Rio nodded with a laugh. “Took off like a shot. You figure out where you wanted him?”

“Yes, so I need some help moving beds around.”

“Oh?”

Beth nodded. “Kenny’s giving up the bunk bed, which is going into the girls’ room. Jane has said that Marcus can have the top bunk. Jane’s bed is going into Kenny’s room, but we’re going to get him a new one. He’s getting too big for the bunk bed anyways.”

“Musical beds, huh?”

“Yup.” Beth stretched her neck from side to side. “Mattresses are already off. Jane’s bed is in the hall. Just need to move Kenny’s.”

Rio went to help, although they spent most of the time corralling Marcus and Jane away so that they could get everything set up. Beth had already taken out extra sheets and pillows to put on the top bunk for Marcus, who immediately launched himself up the ladder.

“I wanna come up!” Jane said, moving to follow him.

“Be careful, Jane,” Beth reminded her youngest. “I don’t want to have to drive you to the emergency room.”

“Okay, mom,” Jane said, not even looking at her when she got to the top of the ladder and sat next to Marcus, who had moved down the bed to give her space. “Can you pass me the notebook? Please.”

Amused, Rio bent to snag the journal with the bright purple fuzzy cover and matching pen, then passed them to her before leaving with Beth to get started on dinner.

A few hours later, he was back in the room, supervising bedtime routines.

“I’ll make sure they go to sleep,” Emma told Rio, glancing at Jane and Marcus, who was hanging halfway over the side of the top bunk.

Rio sighed. “Marcus.” His son’s head came up. “You might fall if you do that.”

Marcus moved a little ways back, head still hanging over the edge.

“And don’t stay up too late.”

“Okay, Daddy.”

“Night,” he said, ruffling Marcus’ hair, then doing the same to Jane and moving towards Emma, only for her to yank her blanket up over her head. Laughing, Rio left the room, keeping the door open a crack and heading back downstairs.

The kids had all gone upstairs, although he imagined that Kenny and Danny were both still awake as well. Reaching the kitchen, he found Beth starting the dishwasher.

“I was doing that,” he said, coming to a stop once his chest was touching her back.

Beth just laughed. “You had your hands full,” she said as she reached up to scratch her nails over his neck. “Thought I’d get it done, save you the trouble.”

“That’s supposed to be my line.” He kissed her cheek. “Wanna watch some TV or something? Seems a little early to go to bed.”

Beth nodded. They wound up stretched out on the couch together, watching a crime drama that had Beth covering her eyes half the time.

“If you’re such a ‘fraidy cat, why you watch this?” Rio asked during an autopsy scene.

“I’m not afraid,” Beth told him. “It’s just gross.”

He smiled into her hair. “You’ve got four kids. You’ve seen plenty of gross.”

Beth wiggled until she was facing him and scowled. “Not the same.”

Rio tapped her nose. “Yeah, this one’s not real.” She poked him in the stomach, but he grabbed her hands and held them together by the wrists.

At that, Beth bit her lower lip, glancing up at him through her lashes. Rio grinned to himself, but turned his attention to the TV to finish the episode. She huffed in impatience, but wiggled back into her earlier position.

The case wrapped up neatly - the brother did it - and Rio went around turning off the lights while Beth checked on the kids.

“They asleep?” Rio asked her when she joined him in the bathroom to brush her teeth.

She nodded. “I’m just as surprised as you,” she said with a smile. “I thought we’d have to deliver at least a few warnings to quiet down.”

“I think they tired themselves out earlier,” he commented, patting his mouth dry. He watched her for a moment, enjoying the way that her cheeks turned pink under his attention. She’d undone a couple of buttons on her top, giving him a peek at the lace of her bra.

Reaching over, he slipped his hand into her shirt, running his fingers along the top of the bra where the lace melted into skin.

He left her to her nighttime routine and wandered out to collapse onto the bed.

He had three messages from Lora, variations of _Look at my babies!_ accompanied by photos of the kids in the Halloween costumes that they must have just picked up with her standing behind them.

_Very cute,_, he replied, _who’s dressed as the monster in the back?_

She got it right away and started to type back immediately. Rio put his phone on silent and put it on the bedside table. Let her stew overnight.

He half rolled out of the bed to strip out of his clothes, tossing them onto the hamper Beth kept by the bathroom door.

She came out right as his sock sailed by. She looked at the basket, then up at him. “Really?”

He’d already lifted the covers and crawled back in, palming his cock. “Yup.”

Beth rolled her eyes, turning off the bathroom light and coming to join him.

“Cute pajamas,” he said. They were covered in a pattern of donuts and cookies. She flushed, although if it was about the pajamas or him stroking himself, he wasn’t sure.

“The kids picked them,” she told him.

“They’re cute,” he repeated. She climbed into bed beside him, back to him. She left a little space, but Rio didn’t maintain it, scooting over to curve around her.

Rio stroked the curve of her ass, palming one cheek and grinning into the back of her neck before nipping her. “Wanna fuck you,” he murmured.

“Then do it,” Beth said.

He pulled his hand out of her pajama bottoms so that he could shove them down around her knees. Sliding his thigh between hers, he slid closer to her until his hard cock was pressing against her ass.

Beth canted her hips. “Put it in.”

Rio chuckled, wrapping his hand around Beth’s neck so that his fingers could trace her jaw. “Where’s your sense of romance?”

“Put it in, honey,” she said.

“You put it in,” he replied, rolling his hips. His cock skated over her folds. She was wet, thank fuck. “Unless you think you can get off like this too. I know I can.”

She huffed, but shifted until she was reaching down between them to grab his cock and hold the tip against her. Rio pressed in just enough to know he was inside of her, then slammed his hips against her the same time he slid two fingers into her mouth.

She moaned around his fingers rather than making any kind of really loud noise, just like he’d hoped. He slid his fingers in and out of her lips and without him saying anything, she started to suck on them.

“Yeah,” he said into her ear, adjusting the position of his leg so that he had some leverage to thrust.

The angle was awkward and they couldn’t maintain it for long. Laughing around his fingers, Beth rolled onto her back and nipped his fingertips until he withdrew them. Rio settled back in between her legs, kissing the laughter off of her lips and replacing it with a moan as he slid inside of her.

He eventually broke the kiss, nuzzling the point where her jaw, ear, and neck met. Her breathing hitched as he thrust deeply and stayed there, grinding his hips against her for a moment.

Beth turned her head to the side and panted his name into his ear. “Rio, Rio, please.”

“Please what,” he muttered into her ear, going back to thrusting. “What do you want, Elizabeth?”

Her hands on his back traced the flexing muscles under the heavily inked skin.

“Gonna admit you’ve got a thing for tattoos?” he teased.

Beth’s nails scratched him lightly. “Only yours,” she lifted her head to coax his face back towards hers in order to kiss him.

Rio smiled into the kiss, shifting his weight onto one arm so that he could work his hand down between them to give her pressure against her clit. She moaned as he started to circle it with the flat of his finger, slowly tightening the circle, then widening it again.

“Come on, sweetheart,” he said when her head fell back onto the pillow. “Tell me, which one’s your favourite?”

She shuddered, but one of her hands came around to his front and her fingers danced over the sacred heart there, but to his surprise and delight, they moved upwards until her hand was pressed against his throat. “This one,” she said, voice breathy.

“Yeah?” Rio swallowed, the slight shift of his throat pressing his skin against Beth’s grip.

She nodded, but cried out when he started rubbing her with just the right amount of pressure to get her off. Not too harsh, not too soft. Not too much movement, but not staying still either.

“Come for me, baby. Come on, Elizabeth,” he coaxed.

Her hand fell away from his throat. He kissed her as she peaked, muffling the moan she let out.

He was almost there, had been holding on so he could get Beth off around his cock and as she tensed around him, he stopped trying not to come. It was just a few more thrusts until he started to spill inside of her, shuddering.

They weren’t kissing anymore, though Rio wasn’t sure when that had happened. He just buried his face in her shoulder and opened his mouth over her collarbone.

Both of Beth’s hands were on his back again, going up and down his spine. He sucked her skin into his mouth, teasing her with his teeth, not really biting her, but close. He sucked a little harder and one of her hands came up to the back of his head with a hiss as she scrambled to get a grip. He had no hair for her to grab, so she just scratched his scalp.

He let go, kissing the spot twice after he did.

“Love you,” Rio said.

——————————

Rio woke up to find that Beth wasn’t in bed, although he supposed that he shouldn’t be surprised. Rubbing his eyes, he got up and pulled a shirt on.

Wandering out of the bedroom, he could hear the sounds of life in the kitchen.

“Morning, Daddy!” Marcus saw him first, hopping off the stool to run over to Rio. “Beth’s making us french toast.”

“Is she?” Rio rubbed Marcus’ bedhead with a grin. “You sleep okay?”

Marcus nodded. “You?”

“Yeah, I did.” Rio kept his hand on Marcus’ head as he walked into the kitchen where Beth was making french toast. Danny and Emma were both up as well. “Morning,” he greeted them.

Beth looked over her shoulder right before he reached her and gave her a quick kiss. “Morning,” he murmured.

“Morning,” she replied with a soft grin.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and let some of his weight rest on her. “I think I’m ready to go back to bed,” he commented.

Laughing, she used the hand not currently flipping a piece of toast to scratch his stubble. “Old man.”

Marcus giggled. “Dad isn’t a morning person. Tia says he’s like a bear coming out of hibernation by accident.”

Beth snorted. “Aww, he’s not that bad,” she said to Marcus.

“That’s because he’s not as grumpy as he was sometimes.”

Rio stiffened, his arms tightening around Beth slightly. Her thumb traced his earlobe and then she dropped her hand to squeeze his.

“I wasn’t that grumpy,” he mumbled in her ear.

Emma spoke up. “When Auntie Annie sleeps over, she says if we wake her up, she’ll grind our bones to make her bread.”

“Have you ever woken her up?” Marcus wanted to know.

Rio turned his head in time to see Emma shake her head. “I’m not trying to die!”

“I did once,” Danny said, “but I ran away really fast.”

Rio let his head rest on top of Beth’s, letting the chatter of their kids fill the room. When her hand settled over his and squeezed, he smiled. Burying his face in her hair, he kissed her and tightened his hold.

———————

Beth looked at Rio and started to giggle. He scowled at her.

“I’m sorry,” she said, covering her mouth. “The spandex is a good look.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m just fucking glad I talked him out of making me wear the whole thing.” He tugged at the top of the Spiderman suit that he was wearing with jeans and a light jacket. “My dick never would have recovered.”

Beth started giggling again. “I’m sorry!” she repeated. “It’s just really funny.”

“Wouldn’t have been funny when I couldn’t get hard for a month,” he muttered.

“You’re ready to do trick or treating duty?” Beth asked, going up on her toes to kiss him on the cheek, then on the lips when he turned his head.

“Yeah, mami,” he said, lowering his hands to cup her ass and hoist her up against him. “I get a treat after?”

Beth looked at him innocently. “If there’s any Mars bars left at the end of the night, they’re all yours,” she assured him with a pat on the chest.

He shook his head. “Not the kind of treat I’m talking about.” He squeezed her ass, biting his bottom lip.

“Come back with the same number of kids you leave with,” Beth teased, “and we’ll talk about it. Spiderman.”

The doorbell ringing stopped them from going any further. Beth pulled away and went to open the door.

“Hey guys!” she greeted Stan, Sara, and Harry.

There was a chorus of hellos as they stepped in.

Stan whipped out his phone as soon as he saw Rio. “Sorry man, gotta send this to Ruby.”

Before Rio could protest, Stan had snapped a photo and was typing something.

“Really?” Rio muttered.

“I like it!” Harry said. “I like Spiderman!”

Rio held out his hand for a high five. “And who are you supposed to be?”

Harry held up his arms. “I’m T’Challa, son of T’Chaka,” he said. “Wait, Dad, where’s my mask?”

“I don’t know,” Stan drawled. “You should ask T’Chaka.”

Harry turned to his dad and held out his hand. Stan deposited the Black Panther mask into it and Harry pulled it down over his head.

Sara, apparently not feeling too old to trick or treat with her little brother, rolled her eyes, but reached out to press his ears in so that the mask wouldn’t catch.

“We aren’t related,” she said.

“You were Shuri last year,” Harry protested.

“And this year,” Sara said, “I’m Rey.” She waved her staff, then whacked her brother lightly with it.

“Hey,” Stan warned, “what did I say about the stick?”

“No whacking Harry,” Sara said. “It didn’t even hurt!”

Stan just looked at his daughter.

Jane slid across the floor into the hallway with a howl, followed by Marcus.

“Oh no!” Stan took a step back. “A werewolf! And another Spiderman!”

Marcus tugged his mask up. “I’m Miles Morales,” he said, grinning at Harry and then crossing his arms over his chest in an X. “Wakanda forever!”

“Wakanda forever!” Harry replied at the same time as Jane.

Beth smothered her laughter, but she caught Rio and Stan exchanging a look.

“He already get into the candy?” Rio asked.

Stan sighed. “Nah, that’s just Little Money. I mean, T’Challa. In about an hour, you’re gonna need to start remembering that you volunteered for this.”

Rio laughed, shaking his head. “We ready?”

Beth was giving Jane a last look over. “If you get cold -“

“Then I’ll tell Rio or Uncle Stan,” Jane said. “But I won’t get cold!”

She pushed the furry hood of Jane’s costume back. “I don’t want you coming home shivering like last year,” she reminded her.

“I’ll keep an eye on her,” Rio said, leaning over Jane to kiss Beth quickly. “If anything comes up here, gimme a call.”

“Will do.” Beth caught the front of his Spiderman shirt and pulled him back for a slightly longer kiss. “Have fun.”

——————

Rio sighed and called out to the kids as they started to make a dash for the next house down the block.

“Slow down,” he reminded them. They slowed, but he could practically feel their restless energy as he and Stan walked a little ways behind them. “No running,” Rio set his hand on Marcus’ shoulder. “You have to be careful, okay?”

Chastened, Marcus nodded. “Sorry.”

“What do we say about being sorry?” Rio asked.

“That if you just say sorry but you don’t do anything to change your behaviour, it doesn’t mean anything,” Marcus parroted. Rio nodded. “I’ll stop running.”

“That’d be great, pop.” Rio let go of him and fell back in step with Stan. “You guys trick or treat in this neighbourhood every year?”

Stan nodded. “I usually wind up working Halloween, it’s a busy night and rookies don’t get it off. Normally Ruby will swing by the station with the kids, then she and Beth take the kids out.”

“Decided to switch it up this year?” Rio shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket and rolled his neck from side to side. He was wearing the beanie that Beth had made for him and it was nice and warm.

“Those two have been busy,” Stan replied, stopping at the end of the walkway as the kids went up to ring the doorbell at the next house, “with Good Girls and everything. I’ve got enough seniority now that I do have some flexibility. Thought I’d make Ruby take the night off, although knowing her, I’m gonna go home and find out that she’s rearranged the whole house.”

Rio smiled. Beth and Ruby were peas in a pod.

The door opened and Rio watched as a woman exclaimed over how cute they all were as she dropped candy into their bags. There was a chorus of thank yous, then the kids came back down to the sidewalk.

Marcus pulled up his mask. “Can we go to the house with the long driveway?”

“Nooooo,” Jane moaned. “It’s too far.”

“Long driveways mean the good candy,” Sara pointed out.

Jane turned to Rio. “Do we hafta?”

“I think you got outvoted, peanut.”

She drooped, leaning against him.

“Want me to carry your candy for you?” he offered. He could carry her, but he wasn’t eager to start something that could end with him carrying two six-year-olds all the way home.

She passed him the bag and hung back all the way up the driveway, walking with him and Stan. At the front door, Rio handed her the bag again, which she took with a sigh.

Sara turned out to be right - long driveways had the good candy. An older couple came to the door and gave each of the kids a full sized chocolate bar.

“And for the parents,” the woman laughed as she held out a basket of suckers. Rio took one with a grin and Stan laughed.

“Why thank you,” Stan selected a purple one. “We’ve been out for well over an hour and nobody has told us how sweet we are.”

“Hey,” Rio interrupted, “I at least dressed up.”

“Doesn’t mean you get two,” she told him. “Now shoo! You’ve got more candy to collect before you’re done for the night.”

“Thank you!” they all chorused before walking away.

Halfway down the driveway, Stan would up bending down to hoist Harry into his arms.

“Despite that optimistic statement, I think we’re close to being done for the night,” Stan commented.

Rio, who had just taken Jane and Marcus’ bags, nodded.

Sara was less pleased, but before she could protest, Stan went on, “We’ll start towards Auntie Beth’s house, trick or treat our way there, then head home, drop Little Money off with your mama and then we’ll go back out for a little bit longer, just the two of us. Sound good?”

She nodded and immediately settled down for the walk back to Beth’s house.

——————

About two hours after they headed out, Rio came back to the house with Marcus and Jane.

“What happened to everyone else?” Beth asked with a laugh.

Rio, both bags of candy in his hand and a lollipop in his mouth, rubbed Marcus’ hair before handing him the candy bag. Jane took hers as well. “Harry was lagging, so Stan just got him into the car. He said bye and have a good night. He’ll see you next weekend.”

Beth hummed.

“Get lots of trick or treaters?” Rio asked.

“Lots.” She looked at Jane and Marcus, who had moved to sit at the kitchen counter and were dumping their candy out to sort it. “But we’ve still got some left. The big kids are out now.”

Rio came up behind her and bent down, wrapping his hand loosely around her throat and rubbing her jaw with his thumb as he kissed her. He tasted like candy. “Yeah, we saw ‘em.”

“Already stealing their candy?” Beth rubbed his cheek.

He shook his head. “Nope. One of the houses was nice enough to give me some too.”

Beth laughed, getting up when the doorbell rang. When she came back to the couch, Rio had spread out. He’d finished his sucker.

“Anything good?” He asked, eyes closed.

Beth patted his leg, but he didn’t move. He just tugged her down to lie on top of him.

“Two Jasons,” she said.

They stayed like that, lounging on the couch and half watching TV, getting up every so often to hand out candy when the doorbell rang. Kenny had been granted special permission for a weekday sleepover in order to stay with a friend, but Emma and Danny got dropped off shortly after Rio returned.

“Get a good haul?” Rio asked Danny, who sorted his candy into piles according to type, then only put some of them into the bowl that Beth had given him.

Danny nodded. “I don’t like those ones though,” he gestured to the remainder, “so Mom puts some of them in cookies.” He went to kitchen and came back with a box, which he moved the candy into. “Night,” he said to Beth, accepting her hug and kissing her cheek. “Night, Rio.” He paused, then reached out and patted Rio’s shoulder before going upstairs.

Rio turned his head towards Beth, who was smiling at him. “What?”

She shrugged. “Nothing,” she said, jumping up at the sound of the doorbell.

Finally, it was time to shut off the outside lights and call it a night. Beth locked up and carried the bowl with the last bit of candy to the kitchen to hide it from the kids.

Rio was eating a Tootsie Roll, chewing as he folded the wrapper.

“You like Tootsie Rolls.” Beth looked at Rio in horror.

He shrugged, but unwrapped another one.

Beth shuddered.

“Marcus doesn’t like ‘em,” he said. “So he always just gives them to me.”

“Doesn’t mean that you have to eat them,” Beth replied. “I don’t eat the ones the kids give me.”

Rio finished the candy and tossed the wrappers into the garbage. “The things we do for our children.”

“You got the rest of this suit?” Beth asked, tugging on the top as she started to back up towards the bedroom.

“I think I told you how it doesn’t fit,” he reminded her as he followed her in, closing the door behind them.

Beth hummed. “Thank you for saving me, Spiderman,” she said in a breathy voice, fluttering her eyelashes.

“Nope,” Rio stepped away. “Can’t do it.”

“What?”

He shrugged off his jacket. “That game. Not playing it. You realize how much Spiderman I watch with Marcus? A lot. The last thing I need is the memory of you nearly naked, saying exactly that. It’ll make watching Spiderman really fucking awkward.”

Beth started to laugh. “Alright then. Want me to call you something else?” She started to undo his jeans.

“Just Rio’s good,” he said, pulling the spandex Spiderman top off. “I like it when you call me ‘god’ too.”

Beth slid her hand inside his pants and squeezed. “Yeah?”

He bent slightly, hooking his hands behind her thighs and hoisting her up. “Yeah.”

Carrying her over to the bed, he dropped onto it.

Lying on her back, Beth pushed the waistband of her pants down. Rio helped her toss them aside.

“Wait, wait,” Beth knew she sounded breathy. She wriggled out from underneath him and nudged him over onto his back.

Rio’s brow wrinkled, but he relaxed into the mattress, content to let her lead. He understood what she was doing immediately, laughing as she moved around until she was upside down, face hovering over his.

“I always wanted to do this,” she confessed, “even if you’re not wearing the mask.”

Rio lifted his hand to brush back her hair, though he hesitated for a beat as he reversed his usual action to hook it around her ear. “Gonna kiss me or are we gonna talk all ni-“

He didn’t get the rest of the word out, cut off by Beth’s lips descending onto his.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from The Killer's Indie Rock and Roll.
> 
> I continue to be wildly grateful to neveroffanon and medievalraven for beta-ing, especially considering the length of this chapter. If there's content that you think should be warned for, please let me know. Thanks to everyone for reading, kudos-ing, and commenting! School is kind of eating my brain at the moment, so being told nice things is extra wonderful.


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